Amnesty Programme and the Challenge of Poverty and Insecurity in the Niger-Delta of Nigeria
Kingsley Nnorom, Jude Odigbo

Abstract
The decades of violence in the Niger Delta region has prompted several initiatives aimed at addressing the causes of unrest in the region. In spite of the contributions of these initiatives, the crisis appears to have persisted which points to the fact that the initiatives have failed to satisfactorily solve the problems in the Niger Delta. This led to the introduction of amnesty programme by the late President Yar’Adua led-administration. This study critically looks at amnesty programme and the challenges of poverty and insecurity in the Niger Delta. It argued that in spite of the fact that amnesty has halted violence in the Niger Delta, high expenditure on reintegration of exmilitants without a corresponding infrastructural development, poverty reduction and physical environmental transformation will doom the current fragile peace. The paper concluded that the prevailing fragile peace seems not to have only been plummeted but exclusively not driven by amnesty programme rather other political considerations such as sympathy for a Nigerian President of Niger Delta extraction and financial empowerment of the former militants. The study used content analysis and adopted the Marxian political economy approach as a theoretical guide. It recommended among others that the government should exert more efforts generally at building human capacity and infrastructural development in Niger Delta so as to dissuade and avert future slide back to crisis especially at the end of President Jonathan’s leadership.

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